The Gardener Magazine

The Gardener is a monthly, national magazine dedicated to inspiring gardeners, providing practical advice and showing step-by-step garden projects. Our monthly features include garden design, in-depth plant features, growing vegetables and herbs, water gardening, garden wildlife and pets, specialist plant articles and much more. We have an extensive database on our website that is growing daily.

Welcome

FRESH PICKS AND CLIPS

Ask the team

LETTERS

COVER STORIES

Overgrown to OUTSTANDING • This Tokai garden underwent a huge transformation, from an overgrown and ramshackle space into an inviting and orderly landscape for all to enjoy.

Packing style INTO A SMALL GARDEN • Designing a small garden requires careful thought because every choice matters for that lasting impact.

WHAT TO PLANT

AUTUMN at home • The weather in March and April is pleasant and calm. The sun is no longer blazing down, the summer storms and winds have abated, some plants that have flowered are in fruit, others are starting to flower, and more turn their leaves in preparation to drop off… If ever you should leave, don’t do it in autumn…

Autumn in bloom • Add a burst of freshness with colourful bedding plants in any empty spot in the garden or brimming over in containers. These popular annuals are ready and waiting in nurseries and garden centres nationwide.

80 YEARS of growing together

3 GARDEN gems • Our local bulbs have incredible depth in their flowers, are easy to grow and make excellent cut flowers. We have picked three that can be planted now for colourful splashes in the garden and in containers.

PLANT NOW

In a tight squeeze Plant choices for small spaces • The yardstick for a permanent, all-rounder shrub in a small garden is probably a height and width of about one meter, or you will have to be pruning like a demon!

Feathers and moons… • When the hallmark characteristics of a successful hybrid bred from a trustworthy genus like Carex are described by all in the know as colourful with strong performance and texture, backed up with utmost reliability, we hop with joy. Why? Because we can be secure in the knowledge that a new release with a different look will soon be bred to the same high standard!

Subscribe and win! • Subscribe this month and go into the draw for a STIHL GTA 26 Garden Pruner Including Battery & Charger to make those autumn tasks a breeze.

IN THE FOOD GARDEN

Fermentation 101 • This is an introduction to the big world of fermentation, a process with roots dating back over 5000 years to ancient times, and found in every culture imaginable.

Clary sage • Salvia sclarea is a pretty perennial with showstopper flowers. It is widely used for its aromatic properties in perfumes and creams, as well as for its medicinal value. In some cultures, they would use the leaves to flavour teas. Most would grow it in the garden just for its ornamental value and minimal care requirements. Plant with lavenders, grasses, and roses.

Pick the best pollinators for your food garden • Pollinators are essential for a healthy garden. They are often the only way a plant can reproduce, bear fruit and seeds, and support the ecosystem of a garden. Transferring pollen from one flower to another is the foundation of the food chain in a garden.

Seasonal sowing guide

THINGS TO DO IN THE GARDEN

Cosmos ‘Choca Mocha’ • Do not eat the flowers, although they smell like vanilla chocolate; rather, grow them for eye candy…

LAWN CARE

Caterpillars

Caring for your soil • Great gardens don’t start with plants – they start with soil.

GROWING ferns indoors • Ferns are a truly elegant plant and grow well indoors and on shaded patios. They are less fussy...